Riding Bamboo Trains in Cambodia

Bamboo trains (also known as “norry”) consist of a wooden frame, bamboo decking, an engine and wheels that come from a bust-up wartime tank. Riding the bamboo train in Battambang maybe is one of the most exciting things to do in Cambodia.

Naturally, they are illegal, but tolerated because they are so useful – and in any case there is only one real train a week up and down the line. Bamboo trains are used for carrying people as well as freight.

Bamboo trains in Cambodia

Riding bamboo trains

A trip on one of these can be booked through most hotels, or you can arrange it through your local motorbike taxi or tuk-tuk driver.

Instead of a train with carriages, the Battambang bamboo train is in fact a metal frame with bamboo slats that sits on two axles with wheels. It is used to transport people and goods up and down the railway. The bamboo slats form the base on which the passengers, goods and livestock sit. It can carry anything that will fit on it, even motorcycles. It is also used to transport the rice in the harvest season. The Cambodian name for the train is norry. It is an ingenious invention. After the days of the Khmer Rouge, the land mines were cleared from the tracks, and the local residents built dozens of these miniature trains.

Riding bamboo train

There is talk of upgrading the railway and ending the operation of the bamboo train in the near future, but there are plans to relocate it within the province.

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